50 pieces of 3/8" grosgrain cut to 2" each (these measurements are for a mini 2" completed bow)

Take your first piece of ribbon, fold it in half, and stack it on your needle, with the two

ends stacked on top of each other. At this point, I take my lighter and I heat seal the

two ends, while the ribbon is stacked on my needle.

You can stack one piece at a time, or do what I do, and stack multiple pieces at a time

and then heat seal. Just stack the ribbon in whichever pattern you prefer and continue

doing this until all pieces are on your needle and thread. As you put more and more pieces

on, you'll need to slide your ribbon down onto the thread.

Once you have all 50 pieces threaded onto your needle and thread, make sure you

have enough thread on each end of your stack to be able to tie a knot. This is what

your 50 pieces of ribbon look like after they are all on your thread.

Now, tie a knot in your thread.

Pull really tight when your are securing your knot so that there is no slack in your thread.I like to knot mine several times to make sure it's secure. Once your knot it secure, cut offyour excess thread.

Flip your bow over, this is what the bottom of your bow will look like. You will need to

arrange your ribbon until you have a nice little circle formed, that looks similar to this.

Once you've formed the circle on the bottom, flip your bow over. This is the top of your bow.

Now you need to fluff your ribbon and separate any pieces that are too close together so

that you get a nice round puff.

Once you have fluffed your bow into the shape desired, flip it back over to the bottom

of the bow. Take one of your felt circles, put hot glue on it, and then attach that to the bottom

of your bow.

Secure this by holding down firmly for about 15 seconds.

Now take your other felt circle and put a strip of glue on the center.

You will open your alligator clip and attach it to this strip of glue, press

firmly for about 15 seconds to secure.

Once your felt circle is attached to your alligator clip, line the felt circle and alligator

clip with hot glue. Take that and with the lined side of your alligator clip down, attach that

to the existing felt circle that is already attached to your bow.

Now your alligator clip is firmly attached to your bow. You're almost done!

At this point, I do a final fluffing and then I spray my bow with Suave 10 hairspray to stiffen

my bow so it will hold its shape. You can also use a liquid starch, Stiffen Stuff, or some other

sort of stiffening solution. I then blow dry my bow, upside down so it remains fluffy, on the

cool setting. Once the bow is dry, you can add other fun little embellishments, like rhinestones,

to give your bow a little extra "wow" factor!

This is my completed mini loopy puff bow with some little rhinestones added! It's a nice,

fluffy, round circle and is ready for wearing! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.

Make sure you stop by Bows Inspired by Bre(<click) on Facebook, become a fan, and let me know I Like Big Bows sent you to get a chance to win this bow!

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Hi! I'm Monica and I'm a tattoo & art enthusiast. I'm a bit of an oddball and it shows in my work. I try to design bows that are different and unique compared to what's out there. I love matching different patterns together to create something a little funky and to make whoever wears my bows stand out. I started Bad to the Bows in 2010 and over the years I created countless hair bows and top hats, gained an awesome following of fans and made some great friends along the way. Now it's time to move forward and Bad Girl Bows: Eccentric Top Hats & Hair Bows was created. You'll still find all my work here. Thank you for your continued support!

For this flower you will use 5 squares of each color for the petals and just one square of the green for a leaf.

I used 1.5". You can easily eliminate the leaf and just do 6 petals instead.

You will take the color you want to use for the outside of the petal and fold it into a triangle like this.

Fold your second inside color into a triangle and add it to the first one
(optional, you can make these all with just one color and one layer per petal if you choose).

Fold both ribbons down like this from one corner

Now fold down both ribbons from the other corner like this

Then fold the right and left points down to meet each other so it looks like this.

This is the back side view of what you want it to look like

Trim the tip of the petal to even it up and heat seal this trimmed edge

You want to tack each petal by putting a stitch up through the middle of the petal and our through the right...See next pic. (I usually trim and heat seal the tip to even it up before I tack them, I got snappy with the camera lol)

Pull the needle through but not all the way

Then stitch through the entire petal going the opposite way.

Then once more back the direction you just came from and trim off the excess thread

This will tack your petal together so you can make the rest.

Make a total of 5 petals following the same method.

For your leaf you will only need one piece of square ribbon. I also used 1.5 inches for this

Fold this piece in half like this.

And then in half again like this

And one last time in half like this

This is how it will look from the top

Trim the edge of the leaf as well and heat seal this too.

Now you start threading all of the petals and the leaf onto your needle. Try to keep these lined up as much as possible

This is how you want it to look once you have all the petals threaded on your upholstery thread/embroidery floss or whatever you use.

Tie this in a knot and pull it as tight as you can get it but not so tight that the petals can't be adjusted.

You want it to look like this. I usually triple knot my thread. Then trim off the excess thread

Adjust your petals to look like this.

This is what it will look like from the back.

I like to put a little dab of glue between the petals. But this is optional too.

Then I stick my pinky in each petal to open them up a bit.

This flower was made using 1.5 inch squares but you could use 3x3 if you wanted also. 1.5 inch ribbon yields about a 1.5 inch around flower.

Glue a 1 inch felt piece to the back. I usually run my lighter over the back before I glue just for good measure in case there are any loose pieces of thread

This will be the back of your finished flower.

Add an embellishment in the center with hot glue and voila! You can add this to a headband or clip, whatever you choose.

A BIG thank you to Maggie with ScribbleBip Boutique for this tutorial.

Any questions be sure to comment below or come visit us in the I Like Big Bows chat group! I would love to see you post your creations.